Property website, Rightmove said revenue was up 26% to £42.3m in the half-year to end-June, with revenue from continuing operations up 26% to £39.2m. Underlying operating profit was up 40% to £27.9m and underlying operating profit from continuing operations was up 39% to £26.8m. Elsewhere, underlying operating margin increased to 66% and underlying operating margin from continuing operations increased to 68.4%. Underlying earnings per share from continuing operations were up 47% to 18.4p.
During the period the company was boosted from the sale proceeds of its Holiday Lettings business, which was sold in June 2010 for was £19.1m including £2.9m contingent consideration for Rightmove's two-third stake. That represented a six-fold return on investment since 2007. The company ended the period with net cash of £22.9m against net debt of £9.9m at the same time last year. A share buy back has now resumed with £12.6m spent to buy back 1.9m shares. The interim dividend increased 67% to 5p per ordinary share.
Page impressions on the Rightmove websites were up 22% to 3.9bn and the number of advertisers rose by 7% to 17,993. Average spend per advertiser was up 20% at £365 per month.
Ed Williams, Rightmove's managing director, said: "We continue to develop Rightmove for the benefit of home hunters and our advertisers. We now give our advertisers the opportunity to convey who they are, what they do and what they offer, in addition to promoting the individual properties they have on their books. Someone buying a home in the UK today is most likely to have first seen it on Rightmove. So how agents and developers choose to advertise on Rightmove can make a major difference to their business success. The impact of this additional spending can be clearly seen in the financial results we report today."
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